The Australian immigration minister has urged the Department of Home Affairs to expedite visa applications in order to meet a skilled worker shortage, as per the news shared by The Economic Times.
Andrew Giles, the incoming government’s minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services, and Multicultural Affairs, stated on Wednesday that eliminating the backlog of visa applications is his top priority.
As per the sources, he stated that the community and the previous administration have been complaining about the “extraordinary” wait in processing visa applications for years.
“The Australian government prioritizes the processing of pending visa applications. I’ve expressed my concerns about the present condition of visa processing to the Department of Home Affairs, and we’re dedicated to getting visa applications handled as quickly as possible.”
He also claimed that the previous administration withheld information on the amount of skilled worker visa applications that were submitted.
However, the overall number of skilled temporary visa holders in Australia has decreased from 195,000 in 2014 to 96,000 in 2022. According to Andrew McKellar, CEO of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, employers are grappling with “prolonged” processing times for skilled migrants (ACCI).
The 476 visas, which are meant for recent engineering graduates who desire to live, work, or study in Australia for up to 18 months, have had a 41-month wait time since 2018.
People like Gurpreet Kaur, a Punjabi engineer, have been waiting for over four years, submitting and resubmitting paperwork and documentation while unable to speak directly with anybody in the department of home affairs about the status of their application.
“I sought for this visa myself in September 2018 and have yet to receive my visa approval,” Kaur told The Guardian as per the sources. “Despite completing all of the criteria, paying the application money and the medical evaluation price, there are still a lot of candidates like myself from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as many other countries… over 6,000 applicants, are awaiting their award.”
Kaur said further, “Waiting three to four years is a tremendously irritating scenario, and I believe it’s a moral obligation of any government to do something about it because it’s unjust to us. We’ve made all of our career ambitions, but we’re suffering from not only a professional but also a mental depression.”
